Staff recommendations and reviews from the Plainfield Public Library

Category Archives: Reviewed by Kara

Twenty-something Trisha suffers from a disease that causes her to be allergic to the sun. This means she never really levels her Philadelphia studio apartment. Everything she needs she can be ordered online. She even works from home. And she has a way to explore the outside world through Amelia, a drone she sends on flights through her neighborhood.

When Amelia spots a woman murdering a homeless person near an abandoned part of the city, Trisha immediately reports what she saw to the police. Since Amelia had crashed, there is no actual recorded footage of the murder, and the police have a hard time buying her story. Trisha isn’t going to give up and determines to capture the woman terrorizing the city with a new and improved drone, but might end up putting her own life at risk.

Although I’ve read many Patterson novels (and some of his nonfiction too), this is the first of his Bookshots I have read, and I must say that I was thoroughly entertained. Highly recommend for a quick read that captures your attention until the very end. Please note that this book has only been made available as an eBook or eAudiobook by the publisher.

In Ware’s (The Woman in Cabin 10, A Dark Dark Wood) latest, Isabel receives a text from her school friend Kate, who she hasn’t seen in a number of years. She takes her newborn baby with her as she travels back by train to Saltan in the English countryside where the school she attended after her mother died resides.

At school, she formed a close friendship with two other girls besides Kate – Fatima and Thea. The foursome would spend weekends at Kate’s house, where her father, Ambrose, a struggling artist, allowed them to behave as they wished. They also played a dangerous game where the goal was to get someone to believe some lie that they told.

Kate has called back all the girls to Saltan because she needs them. A bone of a man was found buried in the marsh. The girls helped to cover up a crime on that fateful night. How far will their lies go to protect one another?

I think most readers will enjoy the fast paced story, but this wasn’t my favorite by Ware. I felt it dragged on and could have been wrapped up sooner.

A sorority girl wakes up in the college dorm of a nerdy kid and can’t remember what happened the night before. She goes about her day (and she isn’t a very nice person, by the way). Although it happens to be her birthday, this is not a day she wishes to celebrate, as this is also the birthday of her mother, who died a few years earlier. At the end of the day, she is murdered, but she doesn’t know by who.

The next day, she wakes up in the same dorm room, and it’s the same day, and again she gets killed by the end. She keeps having the same nightmare of a day (Groundhog Day style) but is determined to find out who her killer is, and she learns a little bit about herself along the way.

You’ll find Happy Death Dayto be not overly gory but still contains an intriguing premise for a horror flick. I also enjoyed the elements of mystery and humor. Rated PG-13

Paul has planned the “best day ever” for his wife, Mia. Their children are with a sitter for the weekend, and Paul is taking Mia up to their Ohio lake house before the tourist season is in full effect. In fact, he even has a special surprise in his glove box for Mia, which he’ll present at exactly the right moment. Sounds like an idyllic weekend for a typical, suburban couple, right?

The reader is about to learn otherwise. Told from Paul’s perspective, we begin to learn about his growing resentment of Mia, his infidelity and how his abusiveness has a long history. For Paul, the driving force keeping them together is money. Mia comes from a rich New York family and in the event of her untimely death, Paula would benefit greatly.

Mia, however, isn’t the naive woman Paul believes her to be, and she has plans of her own for their “best day ever.”

I enjoyed this fast-paced read. The author didn’t go for the shock value with an implausible ending, so I appreciated the realistic ending, and if you are okay with an unlikable protagonist, this book would appeal to most.

A girlfriend and her boyfriend, Jack, are in the car on the way for her to meet Jack’s parents for the first time. The couple lives in the city, but Jack’s parents live in a rural area that takes a while to get to on country roads. For most of the trip, the girl is reflecting on her relationship with Jack and is contemplating “ending things” with him.

There is a secret the reader knows that the girl has kept from Jack. She has been receiving eerie phone calls in which the individual leaves creepy voicemail message that ask the same question each time. She doesn’t understand the context or what it all means and has yet to tell anyone.

The story alternates between the Jack and the girlfriend and then a group of people talking about someone’s suicide, but who died and how it’s related isn’t relieved until the very end.

This is a short, yet super dark and disturbing read, albeit one with a good twist. Only recommended to certain readers who can deal with this strange tale.

Child psychologist and agoraphobe Anna Fox has been home bound for the last ten months. The only contact she has with the outside world are regular in-home appointments with her psychiatrist and physical therapist and the occasional visit from her tenant, David, who rents the basement apartment of her brownstone. Anna’s passions include overindulging in wine and prescription medications, old noir and thriller film and watching the outside activities of her Gramercy Park neighborhood.

Most interesting to Anna are the Russells, the new neighbors across the park, who are a husband and wife couple with a teenage son who moved here from Boston. When her house is egged by a bunch of kids on Halloween, Anna attempts to take her first steps outside but can’t make it and is rescued by Jane Russell. The women form a friendship when Anna invites Jane inside, and they spend the evening drinking wine and playing chess. When Anna sees Jane being attacked through the window, she suspects the woman could have been murdered. But the real Jane Russell is not the woman who she saw in the window. So who is she? Or is her dependence on pills and liquor having her fabricating events?

I don’t think Finn’s debut totally lives up to the hype, but keep in mind I’m a prolific reader of this genre and it takes a lot to impress me. However, readers who are fans of Hitchcock’s Rear Windowand The Girl on the Train(and novels with unreliable narrators) will find The Woman in the Windowto their liking.

It’s been ten years since Lindsey last saw her abusive ex, Andrew. Lindsey and her daughter, Sophie, escaped one night when Andrew was passed out drunk. He tried to follow them but ended up causing a car accident that killed another woman. He has spent the last ten years in prison, but now his sentence is over.

Lindsey wants nothing to do with Andrew, but he seems intent on making their lives miserable. She believes that Andrew has been in her house, touching her things, but without any evidence, the police can’t arrest Andrew. Unbeknownst to Lindsey, Sophie has been writing her dad in prison, hoping to get to know him. To her, he seems sorry and she is starting to trust that he means it.

But Andrew continues to stalk Lindsey, suggesting he knows a secret that she has been harboring since that fateful night. This puts them back on the run.

The story goes back and forth in time, from present day to the events leading up to Lindsey’s escape. There is a twist I didn’t see coming, that amped-up the suspense. I have been a big fan of Stevens since her first novel, Still Missing. While this isn’t as good as her earlier books, there is enough here to entertain most readers.